Just a few yards away across the South Circular, yet a world away from the elegant Georgian façade of the newly-refurbished Woolwich Barracks, the home of the Royal Artillery for more than 200 years, lies the locked and hitherto neglected shell of St George’s, the Garrison Church of the Royal

It may not have a history quite as illustrious as that of The Times — its starting date of 1897 making it a relative newcomer — but there is no doubt that Country Life has a similarly loyal and engaged readership. And the beating heart of any newspaper or magazine of note is, and always has been

The presentation of the King of Prussia Gold Medal earlier this month to a firm of English architects for its skilful restoration of the Chapel Royal in Brighton has drawn attention to the obscure history of this ceremonial decoration, which was made in 1857 but lay forgotten in a leather-covered

Andrew Reid, the new director of the Royal School of Church Music, has come full circle. As a 9-year-old chorister at St Bartholomew’s church in Otford, Kent, he was enrolled on an RSCM training scheme — and he never looked back. He evolved from a complete novice — “I don’t think I could sing two

There may be only one Bradley Wiggins but thousands of ordinary cyclists, young and old, will be setting out next Saturday with equal determination to that shown by the Olympic champion and winner of the Tour de France. They will ride from church to church, seeking to raise £1.5 million for the

It is a fact commonly trotted out by the Church of England that about a million people attend a service each week. And in the most basic sense that the Church is about bottoms on seats then a good many of the latter are about as comfortable, and as modern, as Vincent van Gogh’s pine and rattan

The much-publicised case of Youcef Nadarkhani, the pastor sentenced to death for apostasy, has highlighted the plight of Christian leaders in Iran. Lesser known, but more pervasive, is the State’s persecution of ordinary Christians in Iran, particularly those newly converted from Islam. They

The cruise ship company P&O celebrates its 175th anniversary this year on Tuesday when, for the first time, its entire fleet of seven ships — Adonia, Arcadia, Aurora, Azura, Oceana, Oriana and Ventura — will gather in their home port of Southampton, from where they will sail into the Solent

There is a rare opportunity this Easter to visit the abandoned 13th-century parish church in the deserted village of Imber in the heart of Salisbury Plain. The Wiltshire village was evacuated for army training purposes in 1943 and has remained under the control of the Military of Defence ever

The nation’s finest choirs are lending their voices to the fanfare surrounding the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee weekend in June in a most impressive and unusual initiative. The Choirbook for the Queen is a two-volume collection of 44 anthems, including 11 commissions, to mark the Jubilee. Eighty